Land management

Poor soil health is recognized as a major cause of decline in agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa. This low cost soil and plant analysis technology works to improve management of natural resources through light photon based methods.

For International Day of Rural Women, Thrive contemplates how women farmers are coping with today’s agricultural challenges. Researchers are finding that the right interventions can benefit not only struggling farmers but also women specifically as well.

Researchers frin the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), and the University of Illinois find that a soil's prior management impacts its response to liming and phosphorus uptake.

Sequestering carbon into agricultural soils has the potential to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gasses while improving soil quality for farmers, but to what extent? A recent webinar looks at the mitigation potentials.

By Georgina Smith of CIAT. New maps show massive potential to store more carbon in farmland soils through better management practices, contributing to global emission reduction targets. The amount of carbon stored in the top 30 centimeters of the soil could increase an extra 0.9 to 1.85 gigatons each year, say authors of a new study published today in Scientific Reports.

By Keith Shepherd and Rolf Sommer - How we manage soils is crucial to tackling climate change. Today, August 2, is Earth Overshoot Day for 2017, which aims to highlight the moment each year when our use of the planet’s resources tips into “overdraft”. The day helps to highlight why restoring landscapes, particularly soils, has benefits for food security, livelihoods and the climate.

Almost 80 percent of the island of Borneo was covered with this old growth rainforest in 1973. Today, only 28 percent remains. A new Atlas of Deforestation and Industrial Plantations to map and reduce deforestation rates.

People in poor, rural communities in the Sahel often have to make difficult decisions about how they use their limited land, financial and natural resources. Perhaps there is a better way to sustainably source livestock fodder from resilient ecosystems.